Steven Huckle

From Runescape to Shark Infested Custard

Tuesday was an eventful day for gaming students, mainly because one of the designers of one of the most influential games of all of our childhoods, that influence came from a phenomenon known as the mythical land of Runescape, and Steven Huckle was an interesting guest to say the least.

Why so interesting you may ask?

The reason behind my wording is because of the vast amount of knowledge brought towards the table by Mr. Huckle , from working on the original Tomb Raider to working on Runescape, this man has seemed to do it all, and he has, he offered information for several audiences, this information was stated towards many different people, from designers to programmers, from artists to producers, and most importantly from consumer to developer. through out his talk, Mr. Huckle gave clear explanations on how the game industry works and how every cog in the big machine that is a development studio worked and how important it was to the final product, the main subject that was spoken about was all the ways one could get into the gaming industry, we learned of helpful programs such as JavaScript and C++ that allow us to make our own games, and than was the talk about his new company, Shark Infested Custard, which helps out aspiring developers start out.

These are some of the many reasons why this event left me feeling more inspired to make games and also left with ideas on how to achieve that, so all in all not a bad way to spend a Tuesday morning.

Legendary Games

A Legendary experience

On Monday we were treated to a visit from a developer from Legendary Games Studios and an original developer of the first two Tomb Raider games, his name was Gavin Rummery , and this event gave everyone a better idea of what this glorious industry of our is all about.

At the beginning

At the beginning of the event we find out some personal details about Gavin and about how the environment he grew up in changed his life and how it inspired, Gavin told us about all manner of things such as his first computer and his trip to see the first Star Wars movie when it was fresh off the press. these experienced help create the amazing result which was the first Tomb Raider, but first we should probably talk about how he started in this amazing industry of gaming, Gavin started off as a student in university but didn't initially start with programming video games, but studied Engineering, although later he found that his course was boring and difficult, so instead decided to start programming and coding.

This is where it starts to get interesting

Later on we moved towards Gavin's days as a developer, and found out he started with a small company called Core Studios, this was the company working on the original Tomb Raider, we learnt that the original team was made of six people and the initial idea behind this masterpiece was to make a female Indiana Jones with Lara Croft, and as this talk went along we found more and more interesting things about the production of the first game in a long series, such interesting facts such as the creation of a dinosaur in the first game and the amount of units the game sold, many more were told throughout the hour and three quarters the event went on for but if i said them all this blog would go on for ages so to save you the trouble of my random rambling and get to the very important stuff, later on in the event we than heard from the production of the second Tomb Raider game and all the complications that went with it, such as team changes and release deadlines, we find that all of these affected the end result of the game and created chances for more sequels.

In Conclusion

In the end we find out about more of the recent projects from Legendary games such as Year 0, and we get a few questions answered that allowed a large number of students to gain better insight into this industry we call home, and all in all we thank Gavin for his time and his wisdom, because after his talk i felt inspired to begin designing and producing to a better standard, and this most of us took away from this experince

Walking Dead 2 poster

I have decided to create a poster for the second series of The Walking Dead, this game is the successor of the award winning Walking Dead season 1, and will be released in episodes and will follow the story of Clementine, the actions the player took in the first game and its DLC will affect your gameplay in this second season. The first episode of this season is called "All That Remains".This game is being published and developed by Telltale but the distribution is being handled by Skybound and will be released in November 2013 and available on Xbox 360, PS3, PSVita, iOS, Microsoft windows, and Mac.

Graphic Design Web Page

Web Page

Graphic Style
this web page is called "Game Rant" , a game review site, the graphic style of this site is professionalism while still sticking to the subject, which is games. this can create the feeling of trust, meaning that the site gives us the feeling that we know what they know what their doing.

Images
the images used show the subjects being talked about and again create professionalism, this also draws our attention as this is a sign of a good review, these images are related to the subject so would be most likely an illustration

Colour
the colour scheme for this web site is dark colours like black and orange show professionalism and creates a sense of trust, making us think they know what they're talking about because it looks like they do.

Written Elements
the written elements in this source show that the web page is used for reviews and this gathers a certain audience

Audience
The audience for this type of web page would be young people aged 16-27, and would get people interested in gaming.


Compare and Contrast
The graphic style for this website is made to be friendly and chilled out with relaxing colours like green.

the images used are to persuade the audience to try spotify premium by showing a happy customer.

The colours used here are to create a sense of relaxation for the audience and to friendly as well.

The written elements on this site are mainly used to inform and persuade the audience in a way such as to try spotify premium or to download it for free.

The audience for this website from people of 16-30.

This is a different style than one would find on something like a print image, with the print image it would be a lot smaller and more compact than on a monitor for a webpage, this means that not everything wouldn't be on the print version. but the colours and graphic style would be the same as it would be simple and friendly.

This style is similar to a moving image is that there isnt a lot of text to make it simpler for the audience to use and understand, and the purpose can be the same for both, to entertain.

Term 1 Deadlines

Animation

25th of October- Animation unit (Animation in Digital Media) - uses and techniques

6th of December - Animation unit (Animation in Digital Media) - Animation production

TBC - Animater case study


Audio

15th/22nd of November - Digital audio production - Audio guide and pratical assessment

6th of December - Digital audio production - Audio recordings

16th of December - Digital audio production/ Animation production- Review


Graphic design

18th of October - Graphics - guide to digital graphics

13th of December - Graphics - poster and logo

Graphic Design Moving Image

Graphic Design
The design of this moving image is realism, actors are used to create this scene and have made a meaning for this movie picture.this can create any type of scene and is useful in review

Image

The image can show the main character(s), in a fight of some kind and the stage is set with a type of waterfall, this can mean a final fight or fierce words between the protaganist and the antagonist, or could be a plot twist in the story of the movie. the camera perspective of this scene is environmental/third person

Colour

The colours used in this picture is dark and bland but set the scene well as a superhero but gritty movie. this can create the adult feel of a 15+ movie with the story of a superhero, so this is a good balance of the two.

Written Elements
There are little to none written elements inside but through the film you could turn on subtitles, with the dialouge as well this movie has a moderate amount of wirtten elements but not an awful lot.

Target Audience
The target audience for this movie is teenager-young adults

Compare and Contrast
The graphic style of this picture is the same as the one above but less dark and gritty, you can also tell this is a serious moment by the image.

The image shows the main protagonist and some extras dressed in army attire, this shows that this may be a defining point in the film.

The colours used are dark and show a serious nature and set the scene well for a superhero movie.

There are little to none written elements inside but through the film you could turn on subtitles, with the dialouge as well this movie has a moderate amount of wirtten elements but not an awful lot.

The target audience for this movie is 15-38 years old.

The difference this sector has with a webpage is that this one is not used to persuade or inform the audience but instead tries to entertain but they still have colour schemes that show seriousness.

Graphic Design Print Image

Graphic Style

This art style is known as photo-realism, this is the style of a cartoon character/thing that looks real, the example given is from the popular video game Devil May Cry 4, which utilizes this art style very well as this game is fantasy but also has aspects of realism.
Images
The images used are the main protagonist and another character in the story, this can create mystery as the of character is obviously important to the story and creates mystery, pushing the audience to buy the product.

Colour

  The colors used in the Devil may cry series are used very sparsely as the characters in the games show darker and more grittier feels to the colors, but the environment itself is quite bright and well designed.
Written elements
the written element in this image if very sparse and isn't really much on this piece in particular but in the actual product itself, written element like text, subtitles and dialogue are well written.
Target Audience
The target audience for this type of media is late teens to early adults, so an average of around 16-24.

   Compare and Contrast
the style of brutal legend is pop art with punk, this creates a rock feel with a cartoon touch.

the images show a rock/punk/grunge type of art style and create images from stereotypes of rock culture ( guitar, spikes, fire, etc.) the same goes for the colour as well.

the target audience for this source would be an average age of 16-27, mainly a male audience

The difference between this and a moving image is that with a moving image there is a limit to what colours can be used whereas for a print image the use of colours is unlimited so bright and dark colours can be used.